Pagan Coffee Talk
Pagan Coffee Talk is a modern paganism & witchcraft podcast exploring spiritual practice, community, and clergy experience weekly. Each episode invites listeners into candid, grounded conversations about what it really means to live, practice, and serve within today’s diverse pagan paths. Whether you’re a long‑time practitioner or someone newly curious about earth‑based spirituality, the show offers a welcoming space to learn, question, and grow.
Hosted by experienced pagan clergy, Pagan Coffee Talk blends humor, honesty, and hands‑on wisdom to demystify the realities of practice. The podcast dives into topics such as ritual structure, magical ethics, coven dynamics, and the lived experience of serving a community—always with a focus on accessibility and authenticity. You’ll also hear discussions on the challenges of modern pagan leadership, the evolution of contemporary witchcraft traditions, and how practitioners can build sustainable spiritual habits in everyday life.
Listeners searching for “practical pagan spirituality for beginners” or “real‑world witchcraft guidance from clergy” will find the show especially valuable. Episodes often highlight the difference between pop‑culture witchcraft and grounded, lineage‑informed practice, helping listeners navigate misinformation while strengthening their own spiritual foundations. The hosts also explore seasonal observances, ancestor work, devotional practice, and the importance of community support within pagan traditions.
Pagan Coffee Talk isn’t just a podcast—it’s an ongoing conversation shaped by real questions from real practitioners. By sharing personal stories, hard‑earned lessons, and thoughtful commentary, the hosts aim to foster a sense of connection and clarity for anyone walking a pagan path. Whether you’re brewing your morning coffee or settling in for evening reflection, this podcast offers insight, companionship, and a deeper understanding of modern pagan life.
A special thanks to Darkest Era for the use of their songs: The Morrigan, & Poem to the Gael. Check them out at http://darkestera.net/.
Pagan Coffee Talk
Intuition: Tuning Into Your Deepest Self
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Ever wondered why that gut feeling of yours is so often right? Our latest deep dive explores intuition—that mysterious inner knowing that seems to operate beyond rational thought. We explore how modern life creates thick layers of mental static that drown out our natural intuitive abilities. Unlike our younger selves who responded instinctively to hunger, fatigue, or danger without hesitation, adults tend to second-guess these signals, analyzing them into oblivion.
For those struggling to access their intuition, we offer a sobering but hopeful perspective: our addiction to constant stimulation through social media and technology has severely hampered our ability to sit quietly with our thoughts, the very environment where intuition thrives. Creating regular periods of silence and stillness may be the most powerful first step toward reclaiming this essential aspect of your spiritual practice.
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Welcome to Pagan Coffee Talk. If you enjoy our content, please consider donating and following our socials Now here are your hosts, Lady Ab, donating and following our socials. Now here are your hosts, Lady Abba and Lord Knight.
Speaker 3We're actively trying to coax Lord Oswin to join us in this discussion and he's it's his day off. I say leave him alone.
Speaker 2It's his day off.
Speaker 3Let the man have his day off. It's bad enough. He's got to sit here and listen to us yammer.
Speaker 4So, my lady, yes, let's talk about intuition. Okay, let's. What is it?
Speaker 3Your gut.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3Well, the way I think of it is, let's, hmm, I see it like no, no, no's, it's like a radio signal, okay, and so I see it as like a, like a, like a radio signal or a radio broadcast. But the idea is you have to tune into it, you have to fine tune to it. It's the, it's the unfiltered raw thoughts, emotions, beliefs in your head when all the other noise and all the other static is gone. But it's very hard to tune into that channel for some people.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah, Thank you.
Speaker 3How do you, how do you see it? Or I mean, am I on track?
Speaker 4there for you too, your own track. Yeah, it's, it's. It's like that split second of the honest truth of yourself and everything around you just comes through.
Speaker 3Yeah, and it's weird because as children, we don't think about it at all. No, it's. In a way, instinct can be very animalistic.
Speaker 4Well, I think you're right. It's kind of like those kids who just say what's ever on their mind.
Speaker 3To some extent, but I also see it like action.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 3An infant, a toddler, right, just a child. They know when they're hungry, they know when they're thirsty, they know what their basic needs are. They may not be able to provide it for themselves, right. They may not be able to provide it for themselves, right but they will yield to those needs.
Speaker 3First and foremost, we talk about, like you know, adults being hangry, or you know how we get. We don't get enough sleep and then we get irritable, or you know all of these things, and it's like, well, have you ever watched a toddler? Like they can be in the middle of doing something and they just go. It's nap time and they're out.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3You know, instinct takes over. They're not fighting their natural urge anymore, they're just going. Yep, time to sleep. I don't care that I'm on the floor, this is what's happening right now.
Speaker 4I don't care that I'm in the floor. This is what's happening right now.
Speaker 3I don't care that I'm in the middle of eating. Yeah, intuition is a weird thing, because I feel like modern society does nothing but try to keep us away from it and then we have to learn it All over again, kind of.
Speaker 4So what's some ways we can learn this?
Speaker 3You know, I spent a lot of time with this in different ways with different students in different environments, and so much of what I see is overthinking, overanalyzing, over considering right, the brain just trying to do too many things and juggle too much all at once and take into consideration too many things that are unnecessary, because that's again that's what we're taught to do. Unnecessary, because that's again that's what we're taught to do. You know, everything is about expectation and it's about other people's beliefs and society and culture and right.
Speaker 4And then there's that split second where you have that fear. Could I be wrong?
Speaker 3That's what I mean. When you strip all of that away, you get to the core being. So it's almost like you know if you've, if you're 30 years old and you've lived 30 years on the planet, you have 30 years of accumulated garbage that is not your own.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3The thoughts underneath all that garbage are your intuition.
Speaker 4Basically.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm, and I mean this is why meditation is so helpful. This is why that's such an essential practice, because it teaches us to tune in to that voice more and to connect with that voice more and those inner beliefs. I see so much of it. I see so much of it in so many ways. People just constantly second guessing themselves and not trusting themselves, and there's something kind of ironic about that, right, because it's kind of like you can't physiologically right, you can't self-suffocate.
Speaker 4No.
Speaker 3It's not possible. You can't do it. You can't hold your breath Right Until you stop breathing, because your body won't let you Right. It's going to force you Again. Intuition is kind of the same thing. Now there are some people who will tell you right that their intuition is wired wrong. They're like I. You know, I can't listen to my intuition because my intuition tells me to do the wrong thing. And this can be you. This can be people who deal with addiction.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3You know. But that's not entirely true, because the addiction is not their intuition. The addiction is what has rewired their brain.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3And the addiction then is so prominent it's always in front of their intuition. It's it's like it's blocking it, right. There's a very common type of uh spell work that you hear a lot about in in pagan circles, called an uncrossing. Yes, right, uncrossing, unblocking, untying, you know same thing. Right, it's what it is. It's to get down beneath one more layer, right. What's in your way? What's the barrier, what's the thing that's standing between you and what you really need or want or think?
Speaker 4Now, the only way I've ever seen to even begin to attempt to teach someone how to do that is through divination. I sit there and explain to you. I'm going to turn a card over. I just want you to say the first word that comes out of your mouth and forget about wrong or right.
Speaker 3Because it's always easier to do for somebody else. It's ironic, it is. It's always easier to do for somebody else. It's ironic, it is, it's always easier. Intuition we can tap into our own intuition by helping someone else.
Speaker 2Because, again.
Speaker 3it's like if I turn the card over for you and I go, here's the first thing that pops into my head, right, because it's not for me. It's easier for me to be secure in saying that and in trusting what comes to mind. But if it was for myself, or if it was directed inward?
Speaker 4I know where you're going.
Speaker 3Yeah, we would second guess it 700 times.
Tuning Into Your Inner Radio
Speaker 4No, no, no. How about this? Throw the cards across the room because you've doubted yourself twice now no-transcript.
Speaker 3Get their shit together than it is to get your own shit together.
Speaker 4Does that mean, every professional housekeeper out there really has junky houses?
Speaker 3I mean, I'm not going to lie, man. You know, I feel like this is the irony to that question. Their houses are clean, but they're always cluttered, you know. Because they're always cluttered, you know because they're just like, ah, screw it, I'll put it away tomorrow, Like they don't, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 4It's kind of like the chef that comes home and goes no, we'll just do linguine.
Speaker 3Yeah, exactly Like let's just heat up a frozen burrito. You know, like it's so funny, the mechanic who's you know car is literally falling apart and, you know, has one wheel and no power steering and yeah, that's always how it is. So an intuition is funny too, because even parents, right, parents, try, I think. I think now more than ever they try to get their kids to really connect with that, you know, is what do you? You know, trust yourself, Right, but it is, it's easier said than done. Okay, so divination, so we can play the first thing that pops into your head game, you know, which is also sort of the spiritual equivalent of the Rorschach test.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 3You know, let's be honest, right.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3But we're trying to get beyond just the picture. We're talking. We divine, intuitively Right, it's this, it's all the senses.
Speaker 4Yeah.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. It's not just what do I see, it's what do I hear, what? It's not just what do I see, it's what do I hear. What do I taste, what do I feel. You know all of it.
Speaker 4It's sort of like something else takes over, but you're taking over it at the same time. It's really a confusing feeling. It's ethereal. There's no hard edges. No, it's a little like being high.
Speaker 3You're sort of not even sure if there are edges I mean me personally, but I'll ask you have you ever met a psychic or a medium that doesn't come off as a little, you know a little, and kind of flighty and like, oh, they might walk into that wall, we should steer them, you, you know like, yeah, they always seem a bit space cadet-y.
Speaker 4I'm surprised more haven't walked into open fires.
Speaker 3I think they have handlers for that, if they're that good anyway. You know, it really is a bit of an out-of-body experience, out of self, and some people are out of self and some people are terrified of that. Yes, and that's where the resistance comes a lot of times. It took me a long time to learn how to do that, because I don't like to give up my control.
Speaker 4No, no, most people don't, no, most people don't.
Speaker 3And so it's a fight for me just to clear everything away enough that I can get to that place, because I mean for so long I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to keep it, I want to hold it. It's hard, and it's even 10 times worse when you're not in a known space. I don't know how else to say that. Yeah well, because if you are again, if you're doing like an intuitive reading for someone else, you are entering their space right you are entering a third party's space through that person.
Speaker 3It's their doorways. They're like, and you like I don't know where I am now. Cool, let's see what's here.
Speaker 4We only got lost once.
Speaker 3It's. It's creepy, but it's creepy and it's. It can be unsettling and people are afraid of it, but I but I think the irony of it is a lot of that fear stems from bullshit.
Speaker 4Maybe pop culture. Speaking of pop culture, what about these stories? We hear about some mom getting a funny feeling and five minutes later find out that daughter was in an accident. Or is this a form of intuition?
Speaker 3Yes, but I've always believed in that my whole life. I mean, yeah, I think there are all sorts of ways that we are connected to the other people in our lives, both living and deceased, and there is always communication. We're always receiving messages. We're always sending messages. Again, I go back to the radio signal. We're broadcasting, whether we think we are or not.
Speaker 4I think that's where most people have a problem. I think they think at some point or they forget that this is happening even while they're at work doing their accounting. It's like this doesn't just stop.
Speaker 3No, I mean, it has been proven right. We are little mini batteries and we give off electrical impulse, so there is more to it than just a feeling that you get. You are in fact always receiving and giving a sort of input. Now, again, I want to take the spooky out of it, I want to take the supernatural out of it. Yeah, that's the part that bugs me. I think people get freaked out about intuition because they think, oh God, I'm opening myself up to something Right, something, something could happen, something like, and it's, it's all like horror movie folklore they think you get what I mean.
Divination as an Intuitive Tool
Speaker 4Like they think right, it's kind of like they watch the ouija board movies one too many times right, and like, okay, I'm like the ouija board is a great example, because people don't realize that that is exactly what the Ouija board is supposed to be it's an intuitive.
Speaker 3It's an intuitive tool, right of these beliefs that have come about that you're going to let something in or you're not going to be able to control it, or it's going to stay with you if you don't follow this pattern of behavior or whatever it's going to and and look the ouija boards.
Speaker 3Okay, spirit boards, because Ouija is an invention of you know, a board game company. Right, spirit boards? Yeah, don't get me wrong, they're not. They're not a toy, they're not to be messed with. But the intuition piece of like sitting down with another witch or anyone for that matter really, just, you know someone who's interested in working on intuitive practices back and forth does not open a doorway or to anything other than a stronger friendship and connection with the other person. That's all. It is People who are very in tune to one another. This is where you see, you hear about people going. I'm thinking of a number what number am I thinking of, right? Or what color? Or you know, like a, like the flashcard game where you know there's a picture of a sailboat and the other person has to get gas. That's what we're talking about, right, and it does.
Speaker 4But these kinds of bonds, well, they're not mysterious, no, or in there they're very common. They're not special, no, they're very common, they are super common. This is what people get mad at me when I say this they're not special, no, they're very common they are super common.
Speaker 3This is what people get mad at me when I say this. They're not special. So I have a, I have a super close friend and he still, he still to this day, he tells this story, okay anecdotally, because he sees it as the bond right, he sees it as, like, this is how I knew she was my best friend and I just sit there and go, oh God, anyway, we were at work one day together and we're, he and I, are very talkative when we work together and we banter back and forth a lot and we're just kind of silly and we're goofy. And anyway, one day we're sitting at our desks respectively and I just went aruba, that was it. I just said the word aruba, I just blurted out aruba.
Speaker 3And he goes what did you just say aruba? And he goes come here, on his computer screen was a picture of a beach in Aruba. And he goes how the hell? And I just went. I just shrugged my shoulders. Now, internally I'm laughing because I'm like, yeah, you ding dong, we spend eight hours a day together, right, we go to lunch together, we spend time with each other outside of work. We've become really close friends, like, yeah, I'm seeing what you're seeing you. You were broadcasting a signal strong enough that you sent me a rhubarb, but this happens. This happens all the time. There's no difference between that and when you're sitting down right with a family member or again, a close friend, and you both blurt out the same thing at the same time in reaction to something else or god forbid.
Speaker 4You mentioned the other one. Hey, I happen to be craving right me too, yeah no, that's but people love to see right?
Speaker 3we love to see. But people love to see right. We love to see patterns. We love to see the. The coincidence or the? It's not coincidence. We do this all the time. One way or another, we are influencing the people around us.
Speaker 4In very subtle ways. I mean, we're getting influenced.
Speaker 3And sometimes not so subtle.
Speaker 4God forbid no. I love the people, especially if chocolate's involved. Oh God, seriously.
Mom's "Funny Feeling" Phenomenon
Speaker 3We're coffee. I love the people who study mentalism and the minute body language stuff. Right, because they can. They can pick up. They pick up on so many things and to the average person it looks like oh, it's psychic, is it? Or is it a trained eye?
Speaker 4Or is that, or do you still consider this a form of intuition? I mean, because there was that, what was that whole show psych, where that was the premise of the show was. The guy wasn't actually psychic, he was just very observant. So what's the difference? Is there a difference?
Speaker 3Ooh, Hmm, To me it's training and it's discipline. I think in the TV show Psych right, they wanted us to believe that he was just very gifted with these observational skills. Yeah, In real life nobody is that gifted. We have to work on that. Not nobody, but very few people. It is a trained behavior.
Speaker 4It's something you learn.
Speaker 3You learn how to be that observant, you learn how to predict other people, I mean and there is a lot to this in terms of our brains and how interestingly they work Like there are whole and this is what mentalists do. This is a form of magicianry, right, right, mentalists. Will you know when you see a large audience and a mentalist does that whole thing, where they're like? I'm thinking of a number? Large audience and a mentalist does that whole thing. Where they're like, I'm thinking of a number.
Speaker 4Right, there's actually a science to this, but there's like that guy that will stand out there on the street corner and he'll take off your tie or something while doing something else to you, and then, at the end of it, show you how much stuff he took off of you.
Speaker 3Yeah, but that's, that's sleight of hand. I'm talking about strictly the mental stuff. The mental stuff is literally like they will put a number. You know they'll write a number down on a piece of paper and then you know it's the number that you had in your head, but there's a formula to it, to it, and so there's a lot of ways in which this stuff works. Like again, I think proximity is so interesting. Like for a parent, if you've got a kid who's constantly got the sniffles and has a runny nose, if you hear that kid sniff from across the room and you come into the room with a box of tissues and hand them one, you look psychic Not really.
Speaker 4Nope.
Speaker 3Right. You have trained yourself to be very attuned to the needs of someone else, and that's often what happens in families and, again, close-knit situations. But not everybody is great at that. Some people are very, very, very, very self-absorbed and they never learn those behaviors. They never venture beyond that. Ironically, it's the person who is incredibly self-absorbed that has the hardest time with intuition. You would think it would be the opposite.
Speaker 3You would think it somehow creates a barrier. I don't even profess to understand it, but somebody who's very selfish, self-absorbed, right yeah, they have a really hard time. Instead of it being intuitive, it's more like if we're talking about divination, if we're talking about tarot right. It's. It's more like wishful thinking in terms of the cards they pull Right. It's not really an intuitive reading.
Speaker 4Yeah, no Matter of fact, the most people I've seen that do that are just whatever definition came out of the book.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. There's a lot to be said, too, about Well, there's a lot of rule-breaking when it comes to intuitive anything.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3Right, right. There are whole practitioners who use tarot and have never read a single definition of a single card.
Speaker 4Yes.
Speaker 3They use them their own way.
Speaker 4Yep. I know several of them. I've trained several of them.
Speaker 3Yep, they don't give two shits about what that card is supposed to be. They're using it in their own fashion, for their own practice, and that's totally fine. I see no issue with that.
Speaker 4Matter of fact, I encourage it myself.
Speaker 3Yeah, I do too. I get. I mean, I think that studying the cards, to some extent I get it especially. I think there are. I don't want to call them trigger. Trigger is the wrong word. I was going to say trigger card, but that's not it. There are some cards that hold significance to the reader, right?
Speaker 4Some of the meanings do, yes, in a broader sense, in a more of a broader sense than a specific. So knowing the more broader is not always a bad thing. Right understanding that the death card really represents change not necessarily of course, of course.
Mentalism vs. True Intuition
Speaker 3But I feel like some, you know like there there's people who might pull, you know, a nine of wands and it has a very heavy, very significant meaning to them. As the reader, I might pull the nine of wands and just go. Nine of wands doesn't hold that deep a place for me you know what?
Speaker 3I'm saying that's all it is. So that's part of it. It's making the practice your own. Um, I also feel like intuitive readers are not. They're not, they're not very elaborate, like with the spreads and things you know most, most like, I'm a big fan of the three card the past, present, future, bam, future, bam, bam bam. Because to me, if we're trying to be intuitive, the more time you spend with it, the more you overthink it.
Speaker 4Right.
Speaker 3It doesn't get better, it actually gets worse. So quick tends to be more effective.
Speaker 4Where I'm a little bit different. I like the celtic spread, the celtic cross spread, more than I like the three cards. I will do a three card. I mean, I ain't you know, I'm not gonna like run from the room.
Speaker 3I find that funny because you have to hold that place of what I'm going to call emptiness Right Longer. Yes, yeah, to do a full spread like that. It's not that it's impossible, it's just it's a lot of discipline.
Speaker 4It's just. I think it's just what I got used to doing.
Speaker 3It's what I started with and it's what I'm always. That's fair.
Speaker 4Yeah, you know now, be careful, don't fall into that trap.
Speaker 3No, no, no but there's so many.
Speaker 4Keep moving your spouse around.
Speaker 3There's so many ways of doing that right Of like. There's even things like intuitive drawing, intuitive writing, I mean.
Speaker 4Oh the auto writing.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 4Oh yeah.
Speaker 3There's ways to tap in to what the hell is really going on underneath all the external. It's a lot. It's a lot and I think you know so much of it again comes down to modern man is at a disadvantage in some of these ways. It's worse now.
Speaker 4I mean we don't get to use our intuition on a daily basis like they used to. Oh, there's a tiger there.
Speaker 3I also think, like you know, the bombardment of information we are, oh my god, I mean social media alone. I can't, I don't even understand Right. It's input, input, input, input, input. We're constantly.
Speaker 4No, no, it was that way during the first 24 hour news cycle thing we went into back in the day.
Speaker 3And it's only accelerated since then. It's not only input, input, input, input. It's constantly changing right, what it is, the message, the video, the thing. It's changing so rapidly. You know, we look at TikTok. It's like how are we going to train those kids to quiet their minds enough one day when they want to, when they go? I want to learn how to read cards. Oh okay, how do we turn off input, input, input, input and start going broadcast when they have no means or no concept of how to do it?
Speaker 4Well, how do we do it If we can't just rip the phone out from their hands and go? You can not have it back for like five months.
Speaker 3But that's what I'm saying. There's no quiet time, there's no this. This is where I think pagan parenting has to take a different approach, if these are the skills you want to teach your kids later. Because if your child cannot function for five, 10, 15, 20 minutes, a half an hour in silence, with only their own thoughts, hmm, hmm, how are they ever going to learn to be intuitive?
Speaker 4How are they ever going to learn to meditate?
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, which is that's what I mean, mean it's a huge part of it. I mean I I do find it really interesting now that, like, we don't send kids to the corner anymore. Right, it used to be, that was time out. Time outs are not a thing anymore okay, so so intuitive, and we're meditation.
Speaker 4we know helps all right now for those who sit there and go, but I can't meditate. Do you actually believe this? No, why not? No?
Breaking Rules in Intuitive Practice
Speaker 3and this is part of what I think the problem is. I know so many people, adults included, that are just incapable of sitting in the nothing. From the minute they wake up to the second they go to sleep. Their brains are bombarded constantly by noise, sound, images, because they cannot be alone with their own thoughts. And I'm still very much in the other camp of like, if somebody turns a TV on within five minutes of me waking, they're probably getting a remote control thrown at their head Because I can't. I'm like no, leave me with my thoughts for a moment. I can't. Yet I need a minute. Let me have my cup of coffee. It's funny because the same people, if you get them out of doors, if you get them, you know, right into a very scenic nature setting, what do they do? They sit there in silence and they go oh, it's so peaceful here. It's just as peaceful in your backyard. And they look jittery as hell.
Speaker 4It's just as peaceful in your backyard, but you don't do this because they're wanting to check their phone, but they don't have a signal way out here but no, but they are more likely to be inspired or to be in awe of nature in that moment, which I think is great.
Speaker 3But I'm again of that mindset of why did you have to leave to achieve that? True, you could do this anytime, anywhere.
Speaker 4So that's where it gets tough. You have to take those moments.
Speaker 3Mm-hmm. Intuition is about seeing the divine in the ordinary and connecting to it in the ordinary. It's not waiting for some spectacular thing to happen. It's not how our lives work. Speaking of which, I see more coffee in my future all right, I agree with you.
Speaker 1Thanks for listening. Join us next week for another episode. Pagan Coffee Talk is brought to you by Life Temple and Seminary.
Speaker 2Please visit us at lifetempelseminaryorg for more information as well as links to our social media Facebook, discord, twitter, youtube and Reddit. We travel down this trodden path, the maze of stone and mire. Just hold my hand as we pass by a sea of blazing pyres.
Speaker 1And so it is the end of our day so walk with me till morning breaks.
Speaker 2And so it is the end of our day. So walk with me till morning.
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